Queen’s Award for Enterprise

19th June 2014

Queens Award for Enterprise

We are delighted to share with you that Ford Farm has been awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category for the second time. The news was announced last week on the Queen’s Birthday. We submitted our entry six months ago and have been waiting with baited breath ever since.

It was extremely exciting to find out that we had been successful for the second time. The Queen’s Award is widely regarded as the UK’s highest accolade for business success.

As you may be aware, we now export over 1000 tonnes of cheese each year. Our main market is the USA but many further doors have opened over the past years, either direct or via our customers. Recent countries that are now recipients of our cheese include Australia, Kenya, Canada and India.

Our primary export product is Coastal Cheddar, an eighteen month matured cheddar characterised by its crunch which is a result of the calcium lactate crystals which form during the extended maturation process. Our second best seller is our Wensleydale and Cranberry. Wookey Hole Cave Aged Cheddar is also beginning to make significant in-roads internationally.

Winning this award is a real testament to our whole supply chain. The farmers who tend our herds, enabling them to produce the rich milk required for consistent quality cheesemaking, our incredible team of cheesemakers who work tirelessly to perfect the art day in and day out, our sales team, our quality control team, our packers, and the containers that deliver our cheese to far-reaching destinations all over the world. But of course our biggest thanks go to our customers, without whom our business would not be where it is today.

We will be receiving a visit from the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset later this year for the official presentation and two lucky Ford Farm employees will be setting off to London to see the Queen at an official awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

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